The floor of Siena Cathedral will be uncovered again this summer, here's when to see it

From June 26 to July 31 and from August 18 to October 17, 2021, the unveiling of the Floor of the Cathedral of Siena returns: the public will thus be able to return to see the magnificent marble commesso floor, the result of five hundred years of artistic expression(here is a detailed discussion of the work and its themes).

The floor is the result of a complex iconographic program carried out through the centuries, from the fourteenth century to the nineteenth, inlay after inlay, more than fifty in all, whose preparatory cartoons were drawn by artists, almost all “Sienese”, including Sassetta, Domenico di Bartolo, Matteo di Giovanni, and Domenico Beccafumi, as well as by the Umbrian painter Pinturicchio, author of the famous panel with the Mount of Wisdom, a symbolic depiction of the path to Virtue as the attainment of inner serenity, “a sure path even among the waves” (Wis. 14,3). For visitors, too, the path is meant to be safe: everyone will be able to admire the floor in compliance with safety protocols, thanks in part to the free app The right distance and the installation of the CULTURE membrane, a protective film with antiviral and antibacterial properties with a certified effectiveness of 3 years. The precious carpet of polychrome marbles is unique not only for the technique used, but also for the message of the figurations, a constant invitation to wisdom, starting from the naves with the protagonists of the ancient world, scowling sibyls and authoritative philosophers, to the biblical subjects under the dome, in the chancel and transept. The itinerary opens with the entrance inscription, in front of the central portal, an invitation to enter “chastely” the Virginis templum, the house of Mary, evidence of the strong bond that Sienese citizens have had for centuries with their ’patroness’: Sena vetus civitas Virginis. Our Lady is also defined as Sedes Sapientiae, seat of Wisdom, and immediately afterwards the inscription is followed by the famous inlay with Hermes Trismegistus, the Egyptian sage, the first great theologian of antiquity. This is followed by philosophers such as Socrates and Cratetes in Pinturicchio’s tarsia, Epictetus, Aristotle, Seneca and Euripides, who accompany the Wheel of Fortune and invite detachment from earthly, futile, indeed cumbersome goods in order to devote oneself to philosophical thought.

We then move on to the biblical itinerary in which Domenico Beccafumi, compared to the artists of previous generations, makes use of new stylistic modes by renewing the technique of the marble commesso. Instead of using stones of various colors, the artist juxtaposes marbles of different shades from the basic hue. Through tonal gradations of gray-green, Beccafumi thus succeeds in achieving astonishing results of chiaroscuro, in which light and shadow delineate the figures with such artistry that they look like masterpieces made with the silographic technique or monochrome paintings. Beccafumi accomplishes such a revolution in the frieze with Moses causes water to spring from the rock, which fits between the two pillars supporting the dome, toward the chancel. The main source of the subject is a passage from Exodus (17:1-7, but see also Numbers 20:1-13), in which the people of Israel, after crossing the Red Sea on their march to the Promised Land, are forced to endure a lack of water, until the miracle in which Moses strikes the rock in Horeb, in the presence of the elders: “water will flow from it and the people will drink.” According to St. Paul’s interpretation in his first letter to the Corinthians (10:4), the rock represents Christ, from whom salvation gushes forth for those men who draw water from its source: “they all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank from a spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.”

On the occasion of the unveiling, visitors will also have the opportunity to “walk” around the choir and apse where the wooden inlays of Friar John of Verona are preserved, executed with a technique similar to that of marble commesso, with woods of different colors, depicting urban views, landscapes and still lifes, cabinets showing the inner shelves with liturgical objects rendered with perspective skill. The complete OpaSiPass itinerary allows, in addition to a visit to the Floor in the Cathedral, a visit to the Museo dell’Opera in which one can admire, in the Hall of Statues, mosaics with the symbols of Siena’s allied cities and Antonio Federighi’s original inlays of the Seven Ages of Man. In the Sala dei Cartoni, whose entrance flanks Duccio’s magnificent Maestà, the famous floor plan of the Duomo outlined by Giovanni Paciarelli in 1884 can be seen, giving an overview of the inlays and the route from the entrance to the high altar. The integrated ticket also includes access to the so-called “Crypt,” under the Cathedral Floor, and the Baptistery.

The “catalog” related to the uncovering of the Cathedral Floor, at the Gate of Heaven, entitled Virginis Templum (Siena, Cathedral, Crypt, Baptistery), published in five languages, will guide the visitor inside the Cathedral Monumental Complex. The book contains a nimble “floor path” graphically marked by white and dark green marble ornamental motifs, a “guide” within the “guide.” Paciarelli’s floor plan, in a stylized manner, is also depicted along with the others that accompany the book, as a useful tool for the visitor. Among the services offered will also be guided tours in which professionals in various languages will lead visitors to discover this extraordinary masterpiece. The unveiling that accompanies the many services was sponsored by the Opera della Metropolitana and is organized by Opera Laboratori.

The floor of Siena Cathedral will be uncovered again this summer, here's when to see it

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